Fernando Came to Church

As you may remember, Fernando has been saying he’d like to come up church for a quite a long while, and I believe that’s true. I think he wants to have a relationship with God and be free of his fear, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Yesterday, Peter and I ran out and picked up Alicia. It looked like she may be our only guest because Percy said he and his family didn’t feel comfortable butting into our service with visitors here. They wanted to respect our space.

We waited until about 10:10 to get started. Neither Fernando nor Esmeralda were here. But Peter had been preaching not even five minutes when Fernando came roaring down the lane. He made it!

Church stopped. We gave our greetings, and I got everyone seated. Then Peter started over. He was a champ. It was just the barest of bumps in the morning.

Peter preached on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. It was practical and clear. Everyone seemed attentive. I really enjoyed the service.

We’d just finished closing prayer when Steph told me there was an upset lady saying I must come down now to talk. It was Celso’s daughter. She was quite angry that yesterday their dog had been hit by a car and that now this morning a blue car came flying down the lane and could have hurt other dogs or children.

She said she didn’t want to, but that she was going to put out a denuncio against our property for visitors driving dangerously unless I could stop it. I apologized and said I would do what I could. Of course, we had no visitors during the day before, so it couldn’t have been anyone I know. But I could at least talk with Fernando.

He seemed pretty sheepish, but not apologetic. There is no love lost between him and Celso’s family. But when it came time to leave, he did go rather slowly out.

After church, we men sat on the porch and talked while Esmeralda fried chuletas (pork chops) she’d brought for lunch. The ladies were all in the kitchen and seemed to have a great time. Alicia and Esmeralda loved that Maryann could talk such good Spanish.

Peter and I took Alicia home in the afternoon after I noticed how sleepy I felt and he looked. It was a gorgeous day with fluffy clouds that looked promisingly of rain. We haven’t had any rain to speak of in quite awhile, making pasture rather scarce.

I mentioned to Alicia that I was considering buying chala (corn stalks) to feed the goats. She said she would stop the next truck she saw. True to her word, she called about an hour later, having secured a truck. “But I know you won’t buy it until tomorrow. He will deliver it to your house, and I will come along to make sure he charges you right,” she said.

After naps, Peter, Maryann, Steph, and I spent hours talking about stuff and stuff. Peter and Maryann know how to get right to business and ask deep questions about where we are and how we’re doing. It is both stretching and extremely refreshing to have the accountability of other believers. That’s what we’ve most missed through this time of aloneness.

Not everyone is alike, but we have found we need fellowship. We are much stronger when we have someone sharpening us, iron against iron. Peter’s have done a great job of diving right in and giving us what we need emotionally and spiritually. God is good.